Blame Capitalism?

You may have noticed a new theme within the mainstream media. Sometimes its subtle, somtiemes its blunt, but its there. “Blame the Rich”, blame the wealthy, blame capitalism, blame .. “God Damn America” as Rev. Wright would say.

It has emerged as the left’s rallying cry once again, just as it has throughout history. In my post on Cloward-Piven Strategy, I discussed how the creators of this strategy simply expected us to embrace Socialism because we would be told that Capitalism had failed and Socialism was needed to save us. They are laying that foundation now in order to get popular support against the rich, in the hopes that, when the economy fails, you will support Socialism in order to “Save America.”

In the second hour of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, correspondent Savannah Guthrie gave a live report on the upcoming G-20 summit from London. This was a fairly straightforward report, hitting on issues that the major parties were interested in hammering out – the French want more financial regulation, for example. And then, at the very end of the report, Mika Brzezinski threw a hanging curveball. Guthrie did not disappoint:

MIKA BRZEZINSKI,“Morning Joe” co-host: What are you hearing in terms of who the Europeans blame for this financial mess and is there any blame being put on the United States? SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, MSNBC correspondent: Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any question that here in Europe and in other places around the world, people place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the United States. And in ways, this G-20 summit which, in years past, was just kind of a meet and greet and a photo op has a lot of importance. In some ways, capitalism itself is on trial, people will really be looking at hard at some of the free market principles that have really governed the day up till now. I don’t think we’re going see some huge sea change but you know, people are taking a hard look at how we got here and a lot of people do blame this American-style capitalism, lax regulation and the pursuit of money above all things with moral responsibility sort of shoved to the side. And I think we’re going to hear a lot of those themes in the coming days.
BRZEZINSKI: All right. Savannah Guthrie, thank you very much. Great report.

For those of you keeping score at home, let’s break this down in slow motion. The economic collapse is the fault of capitalism as a system, and thus, not the fault of individuals who over-leveraged their capital – or, for that matter, individuals who overextended their financial capability by buying overpriced homes.

The normally-meaningless G-20 summit is now important because it has now become Nuremberg for capitalism itself. Scratch that. American-style capitalism – the European version is perfectly fine, because it pays attention to the moral responsibility of the successful to subsidize the unsuccessful individual’s lack of success.

Of course, although the real issue lies with the fault of the few who tarnished the success of many an honest businessman, We the Press will rouse a populist lynch mob to destroy the career of every American capitalist pig.

The Ronald Reagan quip rings all too true for the mainstream media: “We have so many people who can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one.”

The economic recovery has been helped in large part by the spending of the most affluent. Now, even the rich appear to be tightening their belts.

Late last year, the highest-income households started spending more confidently, while other consumers held back. But their confidence has since ebbed, according to retail sales reports and some economic analysis.

“One of the reasons that the recovery has lost momentum is that high-end consumers have become more jittery and more cautious,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.

How dare those rich people not spend in order to get us out of this recession. It’s all their fault. According once again to the New York Times, these “ruthless” rich people don’t even pay their mortgages.

In the context of the ever tricky debate of how to involve developing nations in the battle against global warming, a group of researchers at the U.S.’s Princeton University has said a fairer method of controlling carbon emissions would be to focus on the highest emitters in each country (ie the rich).

The new study, released at a time when the world looks to a new global compact for cutting carbon emissions at the Copenhagen climate talks in December, contends that a more practical way of combatting excessive emissions is to concentrate on those wealthier individuals in all countries who contribute most to increased greenhouse gases.

“Most of the world’s emissions come disproportionately from the wealthy citizens of the world, irrespective of their nationality,” explained physicist Shoibal Chakravarty, a lead author of the report and a research scholar at the Princeton Environmental Institute.

“We estimate that in 2008, half of the world’s emissions came from just 700 million people,” he said.

“We are not actually suggesting you go after the high using individuals. But we are using this approach to better capture the notions of equity and fairness in bettering national targets,” Chakravarty said in an interview with Scientific American. “So, if a country has a lot of high-emitting people, it must do more to reduce carbon emissions.”

The authors of the report say their system is a fairer way to apportion “blame” for global warming and may lead to a breakthrough in the impasse in climate negotiations.

Many developing nations, such as India and China, say because their contribution to greenhouse gases is far lower historically and per capita than those countries of the affluent West, they should be exempt from stringent emission cuts levels. However critics of this approach say that a global approach is required to combat the climate crisis.

I’m sure by now you are seeing the pattern, but I can’t resist throwing one more at you, the latest attack on the rich blames them for the ever shrinking middle class.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and “free trade” that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn’t tell us that the “global economy” would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.

The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker 10 times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new “global” labor pool.

What do most Americans have to offer in the marketplace other than their labor? Not much. The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are “less attractive” than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.

So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay.

What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while most Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make it. There are now about six unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of “chronically unemployed” is absolutely soaring. There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.

While the author mentions “Globalism” and that “the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States” he has settled on blaming the rich who surely must be responsible.

The government is already limiting executive pay where it can, taxing it where it can’t (expiration of Bush tax cuts, estate tax reinstatement – all to take from the evil rich. Where does it go? The intent appears to be Obama’s “re-distributive change”. Taking from the wealthy and using it to fund programs or outright hand the money to the poor. How long before the case is directly made that the middle class needs to be rebuilt using money from the wealthy to lift-up the poor?

The media is pushing the message that, “The rich” are responsible for all our problems. They are hoping you will hold to blaming them after an economic collapse and allow a Socialist Economic Revolution to replace “Failed Capitalism.” They are trying to make you angry enough to turn a blind eye to the Nationalization of each and every company, and the forced redistribution of wealth because those evil rich are responsible for all our problems.

About John Smith (twitter: @StopObama2012)

No comments

I am not wealthy, nor are many of my friends. But, we do know who keeps us earning. In all the checks I’ve received in my life, luckily, none were issued by this nor any administration.
I am not referring to those legitimately on the payroll, the military, VA, contractors etc.
The people able to REALLY create jobs are my family, neighbors, friends, coworkers etc. We are in the middle class,or the wealthy. We are the ones who keep fellow Americans working, electricians, plumbers, mechanics, retailers and all the other people who DO keep the world turning.
For those who want to demonize “the rich”, make sure you know the monetary definition, for it’s not as much as some think. Then, take a look at your paycheck. You won’t see Barry’s name, Pelosi’s nor Reid’s. Oh, and when you do take a look at that check, be sure to see how much is going to the government. Put that number in your memory, because come January 2011, you’ll wish it was that number again.
Once again, thank you for the article, saying so eloquently what I cannot!